The Tail End of Winter. (3)
"The zombies around here…?"
At Sang-goo's question, Park Su-yeon blinked through damp eyes. Her hands were still gripping the cap of the thermos of warm rice porridge like it was a lifeline.
Even with her mind reeling, she pulled herself together and searched her memory again when Sang-goo pressed on.
"Could you tell me in as much detail as you can? How they move."
Sang-goo pulled a waterproofed tactical tablet from his backpack.
There had been something off about the horde ever since he'd entered Seomyeon, something that had been gnawing at the edge of his attention. A massive pack that moved like an army. Deciphering that pattern would be a definite asset for the cleanup ahead.
After all, the end goal was for there not to be a single zombie left standing anywhere in Busan.
Su-yeon swallowed dryly and began.
"I don't know about other areas, but… there are four big swarms here. Four in total."
"Four swarms."
"Yes. The Seomyeon intersection, L Department Store, Bujeon Market… and over toward Jeonpo-dong. Each one moves in a pack of hundreds, sometimes thousands."
Sang-goo took out the stylus and marked four points on the map.
"They move like clockwork."
"Clockwork?"
"They start moving a little after seven in the morning, and stop dead around five in the evening. While the sun's up, rain or snow, they never rest—they just keep circling the whole Seomyeon area, over and over. Very, very slowly."
"Which direction?"
"Hmm… counterclockwise, I think. Yes. That's right. When I watched from L Hotel, they were definitely turning left."
Sang-goo drew the creatures' route across the map in red arrows. Fixed hours, a set circuit—and when the sun went down, they halted like a switch had been flipped.
"So to move around, you need to know their timetable. You calculate the paths they walk and when, and you move through the gaps—that's the only way to get around without being spotted."
"0700 to 1700."
Sang-goo saved the record.
It would be an essential playbook for when the Yeongdo District search teams eventually pushed into this area—or when he needed to secure an escape route of his own.
"Thank you for the valuable information. This will help a great deal."
"No, I should be the one thanking you. If something like this actually helps…"
Park Su-yeon ducked her head, embarrassed. Then, suddenly, she jerked it back up as if something had struck her as strange.
Her eyes darted between Sang-goo's rain-soaked shoulders, his helmet, and the shattered window beyond.
"……Huh?!"
Her gaze wavered with sudden unease.
"Wait. How did you even get here, sir?"
"I'm sorry?"
"It's not even five o'clock yet, is it? The zombies are all mid-circuit right now. The streets should be crawling…"
Even as she spoke, Su-yeon flinched, hardly able to believe her own words. She dragged her unsteady body upright and edged toward the window.
Cold wind and rain whipped in through the broken frame, but she paid it no mind as she looked down.
The streets of Seomyeon, seen from the eighth floor. The hellscape was as it had always been.
Grrrrhhh… Krrrraaaah…
Where the bustle of the old commercial district had once lived, there was now a procession of the dead.
A zombie wave.
Thousands of packed heads churned along like a rolling tide. Punching through that mass would be suicide.
No—it would be physically impossible.
"Ah…"
Su-yeon's hands tightened on the window frame as she slowly turned her head. Her eyes had flooded with confusion.
The mysterious injection that had just healed her leg. And a man who had appeared here without a single wound, straight through a sea of zombies.
None of it made any rational sense.
"How… how?"
Catching the intensity of her stare, Sang-goo gave an awkward smile and pulled off his helmet.
As he swept back the hair pressed flat by the helmet, a scar came into full view—one that ran from one ear, across the bridge of his nose, and all the way to the other ear.
Seeing how tense she'd become, Sang-goo spoke in a calm, even voice.
"Well… I got a little lucky."
"Lucky? You fought your way through that on luck?"
"One thing led to another, and I became an immune. The zombies don't register me."
"?!"
Su-yeon's jaw dropped.
Immune.
The word every survivor on earth dreamed of. A blessing from God.
"Of course, the special mutant types can still recognize me. But things like those regular ones out there? I'm fine."
At Sang-goo's matter-of-fact confession, Su-yeon's eyes went round, and she drew closer. The fear from moments ago had already given way to curiosity and hope.
"Did the government develop a vaccine?! Is that what they injected you with? Is that why you said you were with a government rescue team?"
Desperate hope rang in her voice. He'd said he was with an official government rescue team—so maybe the state had found an answer after all.
If a vaccine existed, her father, her brother, and she herself would never have to hide again.
Sang-goo shook his head with a bitter smile.
"I'm sorry, but it's not a true vaccine. There is something called an antigen, though."
"An antigen…"
"It's enough to let you survive a single bite. The problem is, it's useless when a horde comes at you. Once they've torn you down to the bone, medicine or no medicine doesn't matter."
Sang-goo thought back to the first antigen Charles Lee had ever made.
His own power came from Charles Lee's Super Antigen—but there was no way to grant that same gift to ordinary people.
Yet to Park Su-yeon, whatever it was sounded like salvation.
"Still… there's hope, isn't there? That's what this means, right? The government hasn't given up?"
Her question was a plea. Her eyes begged for confirmation that the world hadn't entirely fallen apart.
Sang-goo answered with a voice full of conviction.
"No, they haven't. Nearly ten thousand people have already gathered in Yeongdo District alone."
"Ten thousand?"
"Yes. There's an army, and the power and water are running. A lot is still lacking, but supplies and people keep arriving every day. Busan will be stabilized soon enough."
"Oh…"
Tears spilled down Park Su-yeon's cheeks once more. This time they were not tears of fear, but of relief and hope.
A safe city where ten thousand people lived. A place with electricity and running water. It was nothing short of the heaven she had dreamed of—no, the heaven she hadn't even dared to dream of.
But that hope immediately cast a dark shadow behind it.
Hearing about the paradise of Yeongdo District made her memories of that place—the one she'd escaped—come back more vivid and more horrible than ever.
"That place sounds like heaven."
Su-yeon bit her lip and dropped her head.
"This place is hell. L Hotel… where that Tae-san filth is."
"Tae-san."
Sang-goo murmured the name low, and switched the tablet's screen. He zoomed out the map and pulled up the center of Seomyeon—L Hotel.
"Let's hear more about these Tae-san people."
Sang-goo's eyes had gone cold. No longer the eyes of a rescue worker—the eyes of a hunter.
"Tell me everything you know. Even the small stuff."
Park Su-yeon swallowed hard. Fear surged up again and made her tremble, but looking at the resolve in Sang-goo's steady eyes, she found her courage.
"Tae-san Financial Security—they're the core of it. They used to run cash transport, private vaults, and VIP protection details, so they had guns and specialized trucks from the very start. They've got quite a few MP5 submachine guns, shotguns, pistols, that kind of thing. Every one of them wears body armor too."
It was odd that she knew so much about weapons.
Catching the look on Sang-goo's face, Su-yeon glanced at her unconscious brother and explained.
"Min-jae told me. My brother."
"I see. Then do you have a rough idea of their numbers as well?"
"Combat-ready fighters alone, at least fifty. And below them there's another group… 'Tae-san Industrial Management.' I'd guess… another fifty or so there."
"Tae-san Industrial Management?"
"Yes. I heard they're a subsidiary. Supposedly they're a service company that used to send security personnel to L Hotel and the foreigners-only casino. 'Security' is a nice word for it—from what I saw, they were just gangsters."
Sang-goo nodded.
"Those gangsters run the people inside the hotel. Work them like slaves… beat them and lock them up if they resist."
"How many people are being held there?"
"I don't know exactly… but more than a hundred."
More than a hundred hostages.
Feeding them would take an enormous amount of supplies. Hotel or not, five months had passed—there was no way a stockpile would still be holding out.
"What about food? How do they manage to feed all those people?"
"I heard they raided L Department Store and the logistics warehouses around it. Everything from the department store's basement food court and the warehouses got moved into the hotel, all of it. The hotel and the department store are connected underground."
"I see."
"But… lately the food's been running out, so they keep sending people outside."
"Who's in charge?"
"That… I don't really know. I was stuck in the medical room the whole time… I never saw the top boss or any of the executives. I only ever overheard people calling someone 'the Director.'"
"You were in the medical room?"
Sang-goo asked again, puzzled that an ordinary survivor would have been confined to a medical ward.
Su-yeon looked down at her own hands with a rueful expression.
"I'm… a physical therapist. I'm licensed in manual therapy, too."
Sang-goo nodded.
Once she reached the camp, Park Su-yeon would more than pull her weight.
"Because of that… I managed to avoid the worst of it. I got by massaging them, treating their injuries. But…"
Su-yeon's gaze drifted to Min-jae, still asleep.
"My brother, Min-jae, was the problem."
"What about him?"
"Their head of security—a real piece of work—took a liking to him. Wanted to put Min-jae in the fighting pit, or use him as live bait on their hunting runs."
"So that's why you decided to escape."
"Yes… if we'd stayed, Min-jae would die, and I didn't know how much longer I could hold out either. Dad… Dad came up with a plan."
"Your father?"
Sang-goo's brow twitched. The one person not in this room.
Heavy tears fell from Su-yeon's eyes again, one after another.
"Three nights ago, when they were all drinking and their guard was down, he told us to slip out."
She choked back a sob and went on.
"We went out first, and they caught sight of us. They started chasing, so… Dad…"
Su-yeon clapped a hand over her mouth. It was as if the terrible memory of that night had come alive again right in front of her.
"Three days now…"
If he'd been caught, it would not have been a gentle death.
Sang-goo rose to his feet. His enormous shadow fell over Su-yeon.
"Park Su-yeon."
At the firm sound of his voice, she looked up. With his helmet tucked under his arm, Sang-goo's face was frighteningly blank—but there was no wavering in his eyes.
"What is your father's name?"
"Park… Chul as in 'iron,' Ho as in… 'lake.'"
"Park Chul-ho."
Sang-goo picked up his helmet. There was nothing wasted in his movements.
"Thank you for the information. I've got a clearer picture now."
"I'm sorry, what?"
"I'll go take a look. If there's an opening… I'll try to bring your father out too, if I can."
Sang-goo's tone was utterly matter-of-fact—like a man saying he'd swing by the convenience store to pick up some milk. Su-yeon didn't know what to say.
That was a place with over a hundred armed men dug in behind its walls.
"B-by yourself? No, that can't be right. There are… more rescue team members outside, aren't there?"
Sang-goo put his helmet on. Clack. The visor came down over his eyes.
"Yes. The two of us."
"……I'm sorry, what?"
Su-yeon's eyes locked onto the little machine.
Don't tell her it was the dog? The robot dog? The two of them—the man and that tiny chunk of machinery?
"Let's go."
Arrrfff!!
Little Dog barked at full volume, as if it had been bored out of its mind, and bounded ahead to lead the way.
Sang-goo walked out without a backward glance.
"Ah…"
On the floor lay a small mountain of things left behind—for her and for her brother.
Several heat packs still holding their warmth. The thermos of rice porridge, with its nutty smell. Precious painkillers and antibiotics. Even combat rations.
A rough, unspoken kindness, tossed down as if it were nothing. At the warmth of a man who showed his heart through actions rather than words, Park Su-yeon's eyes reddened yet again.
She sank to her knees and pressed her palms together. Out the gray window, toward the direction Sang-goo had vanished, she prayed with everything she had.
Dad… please.
A fat tear fell from her eye and struck the floor, spreading into a small dark stain.